Efficient to the Corps

By Leonard A. Hindus

After installing a powerful Critical Path Method system, an Army Corps of Engineers area office could track projects efficiently while asking its contractors to do only one simple thing: file their reports in ASCII format.

Government agencies are often faced with a unique dilemma: How to require their contractors to support a high level of technology without endorsing a specific soft­ware package.

During fiscal year 1985, the South­ western Virginia Area Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers purchased PlanTRAC, a CPM (Critical Path Method) project management software package, to track progress on a project. Computerized project management had proven so effective that the office wanted to expand the use of the method to all of its active projects. It wanted to require its construction and design con­tractors to use CPM software for plan­ning, scheduling, and tracking.

Private-sector companies can simply demand that their contractors use the same CPM software they use. However, as a government agency, the field office could only require that contractors use CPM. It could not endorse any particular software package, since that would be a sole-source conflict. The problem was how to accomplish its goal without requiring contractors to purchase the same software.

Rex Goodnight, a civil engineer for the Corps, explained that one possible solution is to write the specifications in such a way that the contractors have a choice. The specifications should state that contractors must either use your designated software or provide you with a copy of their software and the hardware to run it on.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't make good "business" sense. If several separate contractors were to use different CPM software, this approach could easily become unmanageable. Each project engineer could wind up with a different set of hardware and soft­ware, which would lead to a loss of pro­ductivity. Each of the engineers would have to be trained to use a different soft­ware package, and they probably would have to be retrained for each new project. An agency therefore would lose the benefits and efficiencies of compati­bility between project staffs and in-house technical support.

The ASCII Solution

The area office developed an innova­tive solution to this problem. It specified a standard data format so the contractors don't need a specific software package. It required contractors to provide updates in the form of formatted ASCII (Ameri­can Standard Code for Information Interface) files on floppy disks. ASCII, which was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is an industrywide standard. Most CPM pro­grams can produce the specified update files. In fact, the contractor may not need a CPM package at all; the files could be produced by word processing or spread­sheet software.

Mr. Goodnight explained this strategy of Engineers publication: "Several CPM analysis packages provide the ability to create and update from a free or fixed formatted ASCII file. Such a file can be created and/or edited with most word processor, spreadsheet, or da­tabase manager packages. By adding three or four paragraphs that stipulate the desired format for the ASCII file, the contract is revised to specify that the contractor will supply scheduling data in a form which is compatible with our in-house CPM package."

With such an arrangement, each per­son needs to be trained on the software only once. You're not constantly re-in­venting the wheel. Reports you've devel­oped for one project can be used on other projects, and reports developed by one engineer can be used by all the engi­neers.

In addition, there are synergistic bene­fits from having all your people use the same software. As people learn to use it more effectively, they can share their knowledge and help each other with technical questions.

Corps projects often involve thousands of activities. Pictured here is a nitroglycerin plant being built "from the inside out" to prevent fume accumulation.

Benefits of CPM

Pat Johnson, another Corps civil engi­neer, explained why the choice of CPM software was so important: "Scheduling is one of the areas that had been allowed to take care of itself, by virtue of the lack of contractor management. Computer­ized project management software lets us plan realistic schedules. Meaningful, reliable schedules are among the most valuable tools you can have for managing a project. With a computerized project management system, you can get ahead instead of being in a position where you're playing catch-up."

Civil engineer Christie Thompson added that the field office uses its CPM system to track the progress of many dif­ferent projects simultaneously. When a contractor sends an update, the field of­fice just reads it into the system; the engi­neers have found that this simplified process makes contractor schedules eas­ier to update than in the past. Since the computerized schedule lets them antici­pate problems, they use the forecasting capabilities to prepare for the next steps in the project.

Mr. Johnson said the CPM system allows the engineers "to keep track of not only where the contractor is, but also where he will be and where he should be." Such perspective, he noted, is very difficult to maintain without a computer­ized system.

With the critical path method, it is easy to select reports on crucial activities or specific areas, such as mechanics or carpentry. Mr. Goodnight noted that PlanTRAC's detailed selection feature has been particularly useful, as it recog­nizes activities described in a variety of ways. "For example," he said, "you can select by responsibility codes, or subcon­tractor codes . . . whatever. You can use any field, any information about an activ­ity, to select that activity."

Mr. Johnson added, "We print a report of planned activities for the project in­spector. He or she can review these activ­ities to make sure that all the preparation has been done for those activities. With the aid of the printout, the inspector knows what to look for."

Choosing the Right System

Mr. Goodnight stressed the impor­tance of selecting a CPM project man­agement system that has all the features you will need. Many of the low-end sys­tems lack the sophistication to manage larger projects. For example, Mr. Johnson is the contract administrator for the TNT Redwater Treatment Project, a $25.3 mil­lion pollution control and resource recov­ery plant. To manage the roughly 4,000 activities in the schedule for this project, he is using a full-featured, PC-based sys­tem.

Other important features are not as obvious as project size limitations. Mr. Goodnight pointed out that one critical feature for him is the ability of the soft­ware to handle out-of-sequence progress reporting. There are situations when the actual progress of a project does not fol­low the sequence in the logic.

For example, you'd normally want the interior painting to be completed before you began to install the carpet. In your logic diagram, the carpet installation would have a "start-on-finish depen­dency" with the painting: carpet installa­tion can start only after the painting has been finished.

Suppose, for some reason, your painter is not ready to start on time, but your carpet installer is. Instead of holding up progress, you allow the carpet people to put the carpet down. (Of course, you make it clear to the painter that he must protect the carpet.) When you try to enter the progress on the carpet activity, so you can pay the carpet people, most programs would call that a logic flaw and would not let you do it. If this kind of situation might occur, you need to make sure that the CPM product you buy has out-of-sequence capabilities.

Another critical test of a project man­agement system is its ease of use for smaller projects. Some project manage­ment systems recommend that you use one set of software for big jobs and an­other set for small jobs.

Implementation

Mr. Goodnight pointed out that com­puterized project management isn't magic. Like any other tool, it must be used correctly to give optimum results. He gave the following advice to project planners:

Computerized project

management isn't magic.

Like any tool it must be

used correctly to give

optimum results.

"In planning a project, make sure you get all the subcontractors involved in the project scheduling. The problem I find many times is that subcontractors, or even construction superintendents, will reject a schedule because they did not have any part in designing that schedule and they dorft understand it. If you get these people involved in the planning, it will strengthen that process and result in more realistic project plans."

He also recommended that in selecting a generic CPM program, you look for software that handles ASCII file translation; investigate the competency of the software vendor's technical support staff; start off with formal instruction and then proceed to on-the-job training; and dont let financial considerations cause you to choose a system that will later prove inadequate (i.e., do not be "penny wise and pound foolish").